Hello All,

Hello All
Joe posted:
>“Pesticides are often suspected as the cause for honey bee mortality
because many that are used on bee-pollinated crops are toxic to honey
bees.

Pesticides have long been an issue with commercial beekeepers. Today
returning from the city I was pointing every three miles to a bee location.
My friend asked:
"Does the crop dusting bother your bees?"

I said:
"I have not seen a crop duster in this area in a long time"

He said:
"what about the crop duster in the soybean field."

I looked and sure enough there was a crop duster spraying around 400 acres
of soybeans at 3 PM when the bees were flying. I pulled up to the field but
did not see any bees in the field. Blue flowers were about to bloom as we
got a rain last night. I could smell the insecticide in the air. I honked my
horn and tried to get the planes attention by making and a obscene signal
with my finger but he left the field.

I have got a yard of 24 hives about a quarter mile from the spraying (
easily seen from the air as the area is bare ground killed with herbicide
around the pallets which stands out from the air. All boxes have got new
white paint ).

The yard  had pesticide kill last year. I caught the county last year
dropping off Hispanic workers and having those workers (with back pack
sprayers) wade through the weeds spraying honey plants (noxious weeds) my
bees were working in the middle of the day!

 I stopped and spoke to the workers but none said they spoke English. I
tossed out a few choice cuss words and from the looks on their faces it
seemed they did understand at least a few words.

Again against label to spray when bees are on the bloom!

Tomorrow I will go and check the yard for bee loss. If I get right on the
situation I may get compensation but most likely will have to hire a lawyer
if a serious bee kill.

Last years kill might have been from crop dusting soybeans instead of the
county weed spraying but I doubt the county will spray roadside weeds in my
area after I screamed my side of the issue over the phone to the road crew
boss. When you are right and the "other side" is wrong then you can behave
poorly (which is not my usual way of doing business) but certainly drives
the point home.

We have had a period of around 10 days without rain until early this morning
so I saw no open blooms on the soybeans nor bees in the field today.The rain
last night might cause bloom tomorrow which will work out but the fact
remains the crop duster was spraying against label in my opinion so Monday
morning he/she will get a very nasty call from me!

As you can tell I am upset and will vent my anger in the appropriate
direction on Monday!

Bob


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